In anticipation of an approaching crackdown on marine diesel emissions, California-based ferry operator Hornblower Cruises announced November 30 that it will launch what’s described as the first-ever diesel hybrid ferry employing hydrogen fuel cells, batteries, solar panels and wind turbines.

MTU Detroit Diesel announced December 1 that it has started-up production at its new in Aiken, South Carolina, plant.

The United Kingdom Parliament Office of Science & Technology publicly unveiled a report December 1 indicating that consumer uptake of electric vehicles (EVs) likely will be relatively slow at least over the next few years.

Hino officials announced November 29 that they’ve developed a diesel hybrid-electric light-medium truck that boosts fuel efficiency by about 50% compared to a conventional diesel and 20% to 30% better than existing hybrid trucks.

Daimler Truck officials announced November 30 that global third quarter 2010 sales are up 44% over 3Q 2009, to 94,800 units.

Alabama-based Cello Energy – touted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last year as an emerging “cellulosic diesel” star – has filed for bankruptcy.

Unlike competitors struggling (and often failing) to compete with relatively cheap petroleum diesel, China Integrated Energy (CIE) reported December 3 that it has found a profitable niche market in China: coal/biodiesel blend for power generation.

Substituting conventional petroleum-based jet fuel with camelina-derived, all-hydrocarbon renewable jet fuel results in a 75% cut in life-cycle carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, according to a study published in the journal, Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy.

Technip announced December 1 that it won an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to increase the capacity of Total’s hydrocracker at the Normandy refinery in Gonfreville, France.

Shenhua’s technology general manager Gu Dazhao announced November 30 that the company has trimmed plans to boost coal-to-liquids (CTL) output to about 11 million metric tons/year by 2020, about one-third of an original plan to boost CTL output to 30 million tons by 2020.

Turkey will convert both highway and farm diesel to Euro-5 (10 parts per million sulfur) standards starting January 1, while simultaneously eliminating the current tax break for farm diesel.

China-based biodiesel maker Gushan Environmental Energy announced November 29 that it posted a whopping RMB 999-million (US$149-million) net loss for third-quarter 2010, compared with a net loss of RMB79.1 million (US$11.9 million) for third-quarter 2009 and a net loss of RMB108.5 million (US$16.3 million) for second-quarter 2010.

Los Angeles-based Rentech announced November 29 that exceptional profits and prospects at its “Rentech Energy Midwest Corporation (REMC)” nitrogen fertilizer operation in Illinois will help to pay for the company’s “Rialto” biomass-to-liquids (BTL) front-end engineering design (FEED) project in California.

Corral Petroleum subsidiary Preem posted a SEK442-Million (US$63-million) net income for the third quarter of 2010, down from a SEK 648-Million (US$92.5-million) net income in third-quarter 2009.

Airbus announced November 23 what it termed as “the first Jatropha-based biofuel flight in Latin America, using an Airbus A320” flown by Brazil’s TAM airlines.

Ultra low sulfur diesel (ULSD) spot and futures prices rose sharply in key global spot and futures markets last week in response to colder-weather demand.

Distillate prices moved sharply higher on cold-weather demand last week.